Soul-Bound
by Lumosify
Summary: After a few mysterious words from Professor Dumbledore, an eleven-year-old Harry Potter finds himself in a time he shouldn't be, on one of the most fateful nights in Wizarding history. It doesn't really help that only people who can see him are his baby self and his arch-enemy.
1. Trigger

**Written for Arithmancy Assignment 8 in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (Challenges & Assignments) and the Hogwarts Casino 2014 Challenge/Competition on HPFC.**

**Disclaimer: Do we still have to do this? Isn't fanfiction established as non-profit stories using characters and settings that are clearly not ours?**

**Enjoy!**

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><p>"To one as young as you, I'm sure it seems incredible, but to Nicolas and Perenelle, it really is like going to bed after a very, <em>very<em> long day. After all, to even the least organized mind, death is but the next time adventure." Dumbledore smiled cheekily.

And at that moment, Harry Potter disappeared.

The room looked very dream-like, with warm Gryffindor colors and a homely feel. _Maybe it is a dream_, Harry thought. _Seems about right._

Where was he? He turned around, and nearly had a heart attack. _What the - ?!_

Not more than two meters away from him stood a family of three, a short distance away from a fireplace. A father with messy black hair and glasses, grinning widely and creating wisps of colored smoke twirl up from the end of his wand. A mother with long, dark red hair and brilliant emerald eyes, laughing in delight. And between them, a small child, with the same messy black hair as his father and his mother's green eyes, eagerly reaching for the rising wisps of smoke.

Harry stood there, completely shocked. There was no doubt about who they were. It was his father, and his mother, and himself as a baby. But why was he here? How did he even _get_ here?

_Did I die? _Harry asked himself, thinking back to Dumbledore's words. _"Death is but the next time adventure."_ _Going back in time would explain this, seeing as it's the magical world. Anything could be possible. But still…_

Harry tentatively stepped forward. "Excuse me?" he called out to the family. "Er, hello? This might be a little surprising, but I'm your son, only from the future…"

The family ignored him.

"My name is Harry Potter," he said, louder this time. "I'm your son, from the future."

The family remained oblivious.

Finally fed up with everyone ignoring him, Harry stepped forward to tap the father's – his father's – shoulder. But before he could, the child turned in his direction.

Green eyes pierced his own. This baby version of him knew he was there. He just knew, from the look in the baby's eyes.

Without saying a word, baby Harry began crawling towards him. Baby Harry's mother and father – _MY mother and father, too_, Harry reminded himself – turned around to follow the baby's movements, but they clearly didn't see Harry, or they would have been startled.

Harry waited until the baby had reached up to him and touched his robes. He started; he'd been wearing some sort of hospital gown before, while he was speaking with Dumbledore. How strange.

He bent down to baby Harry's height, and the baby grinned, showing off his tiny, still-growing teeth. Baby Harry grabbed his hands, and Harry let him, feeling a bit uncomfortable. He glanced up to see his parents staring at the space where he was standing, completely confounded.

_Lily an' James, Hagrid had said_, Harry remembered. It was all coming back to him. _Lily and James_.

For a moment, Harry desperately wished that his parents could see him. They were so close, yet so far. He yearned to touch them, to be able to speak to them, to simply let them see him. Who he'd become. Were they proud of him? He'd never know.

Then baby Harry tugged at his robes, pulling Harry from his thoughts. The baby stared at him, silently questioning him.

"What is it?" Harry whispered, quietly. He wasn't even sure that the baby would hear him, but it was worth a try.

The baby's eyes widened in delight, and he began to giggle. Harry hoped that meant he'd heard him, even if it didn't help his situation much.

At that moment, Harry shot to his feet. He needed to get back to Hogwarts! Dumbledore was no doubt concerned about where he was, and what would Hermione and Ron think? He'd probably been gone for longer than he'd thought, how would he explain where he'd been? _Oh, yeah, I was just visiting my dead parents, who happen to be happy and healthy and with their child, who happens to be the baby version of me. We all had a splendid time, thank you._ Something told him that didn't sound like it was coming out of a sane person's mouth.

If he could even get back. With no one being able to see him except for his baby self, he couldn't communicate his situation until baby Harry was old enough to pass the message on to his parents. And what would he do then? Could his parents help him? There were too many questions, and not enough answers.

All of a sudden, baby Harry began crying. Harry felt guilty; he'd jumped to his feet and startled him.

He began to kneel down and comfort the child, but his parents shot to their feet and grabbed their wands, aiming directly at him.

"Step away from our son, now," his father commanded. Harry got the feeling he was holding back from sending a spell towards him, just barely. Something was stopping him.

"We won't hesitate to fight you," his mother added. She held her wand firmly, but a slight tremor of her hand indicated her concealed fright.

Harry stepped back nervously, but baby Harry began crying harder, crawling towards him again.

"Stay right where you are," Harry's mother said commandingly. Harry froze in his spot. A shield formed directly in front of baby Harry, separating him from Harry. Baby Harry tried to pass through, to no avail. He began to bawl.

His mother looked alarmed, and she hurried forward to retrieve her son, keeping her wand pointed at Harry.

She picked baby Harry up and carried him to safety, not daring to turn her back on Harry. The action caused a deep ache somewhere inside Harry, even though he knew it was ridiculous. _She doesn't know it's you,_ he reminded himself. But still, deep inside his head, he couldn't help but think, _Yeah, but would she believe you even if she knew who you were?_

Harry's father opened his mouth, but was cut off when the door fell to the floor with a loud bang. Harry swiveled to the doorway, dread filling his stomach.

In the doorway stood a man with reddish eyes and a thin face. He stepped inside, robes swishing at his feet. His eyes were trained on baby Harry.

Harry's forehead was on fire. He clutched his forehead and moaned, sinking to the floor. Through the haze of pain, he realized one thing.

_Voldemort_.

The only person who'd caused pain in his scar. It had to be.

Which meant today was…

As soon as Harry began this thought, Voldemort looked up, straight at him. The man's eyes widened and his face paled the slightest bit, before he quickly adopted an emotionless gaze.

"It seems there is one more person I must kill tonight," Voldemort said.

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><p><strong>I'm still debating whether or not to continue this, so let me know if you think I should!<strong>

_~Lumosify_


	2. Wrinkle

**Written for the As Much As You Can Competition on HPFC.**

**Enjoy!**

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><p>It hurt to think, to process what was happening.<p>

Despite wanting to curl into a ball and hope for the pain to end, Harry tried to stand. He almost immediately crumpled back to the floor.

"Go!" James Potter shouted to his wife. He stepped in front of her as she carried baby Harry up the stairs, running up the stairs as fast as she could.

Voldemort took a step forward, only to be blocked by Harry's father. The man stared defiantly at Voldemort, wand in hand.

Without a word, Voldemort raised his wand.

Harry's mind flashed back to an event – an event he hadn't remembered before – a jet of green light hitting his father, causing him to fall to the floor with what could only be described as a lifeless expression. The sight cleared his mind, if only for a moment, and he leaped up, lunging forward in front of his father.

Voldemort stepped back, aiming his wand at Harry instead. "So the boy wants to die first, does he?"

Harry could feel his heart racing, the adrenaline coursing through his veins. His mind came up with a crazy idea; but if it had worked before, why not now?

The pain had returned, intensifying at the close proximity to Voldemort, but Harry had already acted on his extremely dangerous, but possibly successful idea.

As Voldemort opened his mouth, no doubt to say a deadly spell, Harry leapt forward and slammed both of his hands on the man's face.

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><p>James Potter's jaw dropped in shock and horror as Voldemort froze in place and began to scream. His face peeled, burning and blistering until he crumpled. His eyes rolled to the back of his head.<p>

Lily bounded down the stairs, wand in hand and a fiery passion burning in her eyes. She stopped dead at the sight before her.

James tried to explain what had just happened, but he couldn't bring himself to open his mouth. He pointed weakly at the faintly twitching figure on the ground.

Suddenly, Voldemort's body stopped twitching, and a ghostly mist swirled up from his mouth.

_A soul? No, a wraith of some sort? What…_

The wraith hovered over the body. It opened its mouth and emitted a shrill, unearthly scream that made James and Lily clap their hands over their ears.

In a quick instant, the wraith dissolved, seemingly into thin air. James blinked at the now empty space, before he spotted the ghostly specter rematerialize just outside the nearby window, fleeing the scene.

It was then that James brought his attention back to the body of Voldemort.

Directly in front of the corpse, a form was flickering, taking the shape of a boy crouched next to the body, clutching his head. Then, as soon as it had happened, the flickering form disappeared.

James rushed forward, wand out and ready to confront the seemingly disillusioned boy. A hand stopped him.

"Lily, I just saw him – Voldemort – burn to death, and then this kid appears next to his dead body? That's no coincidence, and I sure as hell am not going to let him burn the rest of our family to death!"

"No, James," Lily said calmly.

He turned to stare at her. She was contemplating something, he could tell. She was staring at the spot where the boy had just been seen with a curious look on her face, the one she got when she was just about to figure something out.

After a moment of silence, Lily spoke.

"I have a feeling that this is more complicated than it seems."

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><p><strong>Short, but I don't plan on writing long chapters. Short chapters are easier to dish out, and they keep my inspiration going. Stay tuned!<strong>

_~Lumosify_


	3. Action

Lily approached the child cautiously. For all she knew, this was another ploy of Voldemort's. Merlin knew she'd had enough of those. But she'd always had a soft spot for children. It would probably destroy her one day, but so far it'd been nothing but a blessing.

She kneeled right before where she thought the boy was, and lifted a hand. She kept it wavering in the air, not sure exactly where the child was.

_Get a hold of yourself,_ she scolded. _This boy may be close to dying, and all you're doing is wondering if you're hovering your hand over him or the floor!_

With a resolute nod, she lowered her hand. It landed on what she guessed was a slumped shoulder. _A very bony shoulder_, she thought unhappily. _He hasn't been fed nearly enough._

Gently, she tapped the shoulder. "E – excuse me?" she asked. "Er – are you okay?" Suddenly panicked, she lifted his arm and pressed two fingers on his neck. She paused and waited. He had a steady pulse, which meant he was alive and probably asleep or unconscious.

Faintly, she waved a hand over his face, and felt shallow breathing. Aftereffects of adrenaline…or he was in pain. She carefully slid a hand over his tensed face. Tenseness meant the injury, if there was one, was around that area, if she remembered her Healing training correctly. If it was an external injury this would be easie –

She heard a whoosh of flames and quickly laid the child down on the ground again. She turned just as Albus Dumbledore stepped through the flames and hurriedly dusted himself off.

Anger flared within her. This had been his idea – this stupid Fidelius Charm 'plan of action' – and it had nearly gotten her poor baby killed. In the back of her mind, she knew that it wasn't even close to his fault. It wasn't even Sirius's either. It was – it was –

Lily blanched. "Peter – he – I don't – "

Albus frowned. "What about Mr. Pettigrew?"

Lily glanced at her husband, but he'd just started processing what Voldemort getting into their house meant.

She turned back to Albus. "He was our Secret Keeper," she managed.

"I thought – " Albus broke off into a serene smile. "Clever, indeed. If…_this_ hadn't happened, you would have been that much safer."

"I never thought – Wormtail – " James interrupted, looking sick. "We have to find him, maybe they forced it out of him – "

"I will take care of that," Albus said, becoming solemn once more. "A search team of Aurors should do it. I will return to hear your side of the story," – here, he glanced at Voldemort's corpse – "later tonight, if that is alright with the two of you."

"Of course," Lily said quickly. "That would be brilliant. And perhaps Peter – Pettigrew – will have been found by then, so we can figure out exactly how this happened."

"Peter…" James growled. "Even if they did torture him to get it, he should have kept his mouth shut, my son might have been killed – "

"James," Lily interrupted. "We don't know anything yet, so why don't we put it out of our minds until something solid does come up?"

James hesitated for a moment, then relaxed. "Right," he muttered. "Of course." He glanced at Albus. "We'll see you later tonight," he offered.

"Very well, then," Albus nodded, before taking a pinch of Floo powder from the mantle of the fireplace and Floo-ing back to wherever he'd come from.

"Right then," Lily said immediately. "James, come help me pick this boy up. We'll put him in the guest room."

"What guest room?" James looked genuinely confused.

Lily rolled her eyes. "The one Sirius crashes in nearly every night after you two try to make the most of you being cooped up in here."

"Oh, that room," James rubbed the side of his head. "He's in there so much he's named it 'his' room."

"I guess we'll just have to kick him out for a week so he gets the idea, then," Lily suggested as she picked the child up by the shoulders, making sure to support the boy's neck. James walked over and, after a moment of uncertainty, held what Lily assumed was the boy's legs.

They'd only gotten to the stairs when they heard the roar of a motorcycle and a man barged in through the open doorway.

"Padfoot!" James exclaimed, and let go of the child's legs. Lily just barely managed to catch them before they hit the ground.

James strode to the center of the room and Sirius met him there. They hugged ("In a manly way," James had claimed when Lily had questioned him the last time this had happened) and then James began a crash course on what had just happened.

Lily sighed. She had gotten James to help her carry the boy to give him something to do, to keep his mind off of what had just transpired. She couldn't carry the boy on her own, which meant she'd just have to take a risk and use a not-so-safe spell on an injured person.

"_Locomotor mortis_," she said, pointing her wand at the boy. She waved her other hand out to make sure he was floating. He was, if the mass of hair hovering at stomach-level was anything to go by.

Glancing behind her, she noticed that Sirius hadn't noticed a thing. He was too busy interrupting James's story to ask stupid questions like, "Are you alright?" Of course they were alright, they were standing and most certainly not in St. Mungos!

As Lily lifted the boy upstairs, extremely carefully, she listened to their conversation.

"Padfoot, do you want to hear the story or not?" Silence. "That's what I thought. Okay, so I was playing with Harry – "

"Where was Lily?"

"Oh, she was playing with Harry too. Anyways, then Voldemort appears out of _nowhere_ – "

"Wait, really?"

"Erm, not really. He walked in through the front door."

"Right, then. Continue."

"So I'm ready to fight, and Voldemort starts to monologue, you know, like he always does, and I'm all ready to stun him – "

"Shouldn't you have been getting Harry to safety? And where was Lily?"

"Lily was taking Harry upstairs, _pay attention_ Padfoot, jeez! Now, where was I?"

"You're all ready to stun him…"

"Oh, yeah, so I'm all ready to stun him, and – and – er, he just crumples to the ground and starts screaming! And I'm like, 'What the actual fuck?' but he just keeps screaming, and when someone's face is just peeling like that, you don't really want to touch them, you know?"

Lily just barely stopped herself from calling, "Language, James!" and simply kept climbing the stairs. She hadn't heard what had really happened to Voldemort. She'd have to ask James what had actually happened. For now, she'd just have to pay attention to line her story up with James's.

" – anyone want to touch Voldie, anyways?" Sirius was asking.

"I know, right?" James said enthusiastically, completely caught up in the moment. To him, it probably felt like narrating a win for the Gryffindor Quidditch team to a common room full of eager Gryffindors. "So then, we just stare at him dying – "

"We?"

"Lily! Seriously, Padfoot, are you listening to every other word I say? Who else would it be?"

"I _am_ Sirius, thank you. And last you talked about her in the story, she was taking Harry to safety."

"Oh." Lily could almost see James smiling sheepishly. "Sorry about that. She just wasn't part of the action."

"Well, now that's cleared up. So what next?"

"He just – died, really. Burned to death, I s'pose."

"Bit anti-climactic for the terrible Dark Lord's death, eh?" Lily imagined Sirius nudging Voldemort's corpse with his toe.

Quietly opening the guest room door with her free hand, Lily slowly sidled into the room after the child's floating body. She carefully (with multiple checks to make sure she didn't accidentally drop him on the floor) set him down on the bed, and left the room, closing the door behind her with a soft _click_.

" – grand duel to the death," Sirius was elaborating.

"And big explosions," James added.

"A huge after-party. We can spike the punch, like we always wanted to do at school."

"James, Harry wants to see you," Lily said, cutting off their conversation. James caught her eye and nodded, heading up the stairs to check on Harry.

"Lily-flower!" Sirius exclaimed. He held out his arms to her, and she hesitantly hugged him around the middle.

"Who knows what terrible diseases you've encountered in dog form," Lily said dramatically, taking a large step back. "I'll be dead within the month!" she mimed fainting.

Sirius let out a barking laugh and grinned at her. "You always were the best at dramatizing everything," he chuckled. "Too much time around manipulating Slytherins, I expect."

"Slytherin's aren't all that awful, and you know it," she slapped his shoulder gently. Slytherins were a sore spot for her, and Sirius knew it.

Sirius cut straight to the point, lowering his voice. "Been in contact with Snivellus lately?"

"Don't call him that," Lily said automatically. She lowered her voice as well and said, "Not since we went into hiding. I couldn't key him into the wards, just like that; I'd have to let James know."

"So you haven't told him." Sirius leaned back and stared at her with what looked like disappointment.

"He'd explode in anger, or something," Lily said desperately. "You wouldn't even know if you hadn't caught me that one time."

"You're going to have to say something at some point," Sirius said. "I think your husband deserves to know who all your friends are, especially if they happen to be his childhood enemies."

"Look," Lily snarled. Sirius had been pressuring her for a while now, and something in her had finally snapped. "I'll tell him, soon. There's a lot going on right now, but I promise when everything dies down, I'll let him know. I don't even know what's going on with Severus right now; what if he decides we shouldn't stay in contact anymore? I would have said something for no reason at all."

"He should still know that you were in contact with him for some time," Sirius said disapprovingly. "I'll keep you to your promise. And if you don't say anything, I will."

Lily gritted her teeth. Raising her voice, she said, "So have you seen Remus?"

Sirius's look turned guilty. "Actually, I have to go apologize to him right now," he said, before his look turned dark. "After I kill that rat," he snarled.

"Stop." Lily grabbed his arm before he left. "Albus sent a search team for Pettigrew, and he's going to check up on us soon to let us know what they find. Go talk to Remus now, and you can come back straight after with him to hear what progress they've made. We don't need you being sent to Azkaban," she warned.

Sirius sighed, grudgingly. "Fine," he grumbled, heading towards the doorway. "I'm holding you to your promise!" he called over his shoulder.

"Aw, he left?" James said, walking down the stairs a moment later. "I was hoping we could spend more time together."

"He's going to see Remus, but he'll be back soon enough," Lily told him. "What took you so long?"

"As soon as I walked in, Harry started kicking and screaming. I put a silencing charm on the room and put him to sleep. I took the silencing charm off again," he added hurriedly after spotting her look.

"Good," Lily said, rubbing her temples and sitting down on one of the red-and-gold sofas near the hearth. "Because I don't think we're going to have any spare moments for taking care of him tonight."

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><p><strong>Before someone asks, I'll just say that NO, LILY IS NOT CHEATING ON JAMES WITH SEVERUS SNAPE. She's just acquaintances with Severus, and that's pretty much how it'll stay. They may become good friends again, but there's always going to be a bar separating them. You can't just forget an incident like the 'Sev Thing' (which is what I call the OWLs incident), and I don't expect Lily or Severus to.<strong>

**This is longer than I meant it to be! Well, I guess that's good for you guys. It might be a bit before the next chapter, my motivation sources are completely drained by this chapter, so it needs to get replenished with the exploration of this new world in my head. I try not to leave loopholes in my story, and sitting around and just thinking about what I'm going to write helps to catch the holes in my story.**


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